Monday, December 17, 2012

That's the word from The Conference Board after sharing insights from their "The State of Human Capital 2012" report. A joint effort between The Conference Board and McKinsey & Company, Human Capital (HC) professionals continue to be stymied by the environment and that is leading to frustration in the ranks. After a multitude of studies since McKinsey & Company's groundbreaking article "The War for Talent" that have shared the same insights as previous studies...we appear to find ourselves no closer than we were 10, 5 or even 1 year ago.

While the report does provide context on this state of our profession, it still takes the "glass half full" approach when looking at the opportunities available to the profession to continue to make impacts on the business first and the profession second. Those opportunities are:

1. Anticipate and plan for the HC of tomorrow: Workplace demographics changes and the "virtual" workplace are reshaping work today and will continue in to the future.

2. Secure a steady, reliable pipeline for skilled workers - and tomorrow's leaders: The acknowledgement that the war for talent continues and will only increase in the future.

3 Develop strategies to re-energize employees' attitudes toward what they do and what the organization stands for: Research continues to point to engaged employees being more productive. While it is considered "soft data" in many respects by senior executives and leaders, it is still an area to focus attention on in the future.

4. Ensure that HC becomes more agile: The business environment speed of change requires HC to be increasingly agile and adaptable. That does not mean faster at transactional activities, but those things that drive business impact.

All is not bleak and apocalyptic, though December 21st is right around the corner. It does require HC leaders to be more forward leaning. If you don't have those skills...find someone on your team who is...your survival may depend on it.

Cheers,
Keith

J. Keith Dunbar is a Global Talent Management Leader and Doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania's Chief Learning Officer (CLO) program...Creator of Talent, Leadership Capability, and Culture Change...He can be found connecting and sharing knowledge on Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.